ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of web-based mental health services.Methods Web-based mental health services were established in our hospital to offer continuing medical education on mental health and psychological assessments.The access of clinicians to psychiatric knowledge and consultation from psychiatry department was evaluated.Results A total of 803 medical staff took the continuing medical education,and 643 passed the examination.Five hundred and twenty-eight online psychological assessments were completed.The qualification rate of psychiatric examination was 83.3％ vs.31.7％ in educated and non-educated clinicians (x2=32.77,P＜0.01).The common consultation from psychiatry department of the educated group involved anxiety,depression/mania and delirium,of which anxiety and medically unexplained symptoms were comparatively higher while delirium was lower than the non-educated group (x2 values were 4.80,4.59 and 5.16,respectively; all P＜0.05).More use of online psychological assessments was found in the educated group (33.8％ vs.7.6％) before asking for a consultation from psychiatry department (x2=30.04,P＜0.01).Conclusions Online mental health continuing education and psychological assessment could improve psychiatric knowledge and recognition of anxiety and depression in clinicians.